


Saving the Blacks

by 000Rachel000



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, I'll add tags on the go, M/M, My First Fanfic, Not Epilogue Compliant, Post-Battle of Hogwarts, The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, Time Travel, Work In Progress, traveling forwards in time
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2020-02-28 11:08:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18755245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/000Rachel000/pseuds/000Rachel000
Summary: So because of some House of Black magic Sirius and Regulus are taken from the moment they died to a 'safe' time: post-Battle of Hogwarts.No confusing timeline fiasco's. No other Maurauders. Just a very confused Sirius and Regulus. Just because I'd like them to be alive and figure out how to live.





	1. Impossible Black

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone.  
> Soooo this is my first fanfiction. I was on holiday and my phone decided to die on me. I was left without any fanfiction reading material and I had been quite invested in reading a time traveling HP fanfic (Time Turned Back -  
> TaraSoleil). Because I missed the characters a bit I started writing my own story. 
> 
> I have to warn you: English is not my first language and I've dyslexia. I tried to read over it to get rid of mistakes, but be free to point out any I've missed. I don't have a beta.
> 
> Besides language mistakes I might make some canon mistakes. I didn't have internet or the books handy and I'm not going to worry to much as to things as canon eye colour, etc. Again pointers to mistakes are okay, I'll change it if I feel it's okay within the story.
> 
> I don't own anything and don't earn money from this, all rights to J.K. ROWLING. etc. etc.

They woke up slowly and unnoticed, what are two more people in the chaos that was the aftermath of the final battle. Scattered throughout the entrance hall lay bodes, dead or wounded or simply petrified.

Sirius was the first to recover enough to move, still laying on the ground he surveyed his surrounding. He was at Hogwarts, that was clear, but he'd never seen it in such a state. The doors where blown of their hinges, the stairs were cracked and broken, pieces of statues and amours lay everywhere. 

When his gaze finally landed on the boy next him he couldn't suppress a shocked gasp. The boy – please please please let him be alive – couldn't be. He had been missing for so many years now. 

But there he was, his hand covered his eyes and his mouth set in a firm line as if trying not to show emotion. 'How very Black of him, always the perfect son, even in this impossible world with its impossible people who shouldn't be alive' Sirius thought sarcastically. 

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice the people who came in and started to carry the wounded into the great hall. 

Only when they tried to come near the boy next to him he snapt out of it. “Hey don't you dare touch my little brother” he snapt out. 

The urge to transform and chase away these strangers in his animagi form was overwhelming but he pushed it down and drew his wand instead. He wasn't going to let his last family be taken from him. 

He had to save him, he had to save Harry... 

But no, this wasn't Harry, his muddled brain provided him. 

This was the impossible boy. 

He tried to think through the imagines that had started flashing before his eyes. He was at the department of mysteries, and then there where death-eaters. 

Harry fighting... Bellatrix... Cruciatus... and then stumbling and falling. The veil. Harry's face as Remus held him back. 

And then nothing. 

He couldn't for the life of him explain how he got here in this broken version of Hogwarts, with these broken bodies around him, and with his brother next to him. 

Then it hit him: he was dead. That explained everything. The veil, the look on Remus' face as he fell. His long dead brother and this desolate mockery of the place that had been his home for so many years. 

He collapsed back on the ground and screamed. 

And cried. 

He had failed, failed Harry, failed James and Lilly. 

Hell he even failed his family by dying without a proper heir. That thought made him feel slightly better. His mother would hate it. The noble and most ancient house of black died with him as a last unworthy member. Outcast and unaccomplished, a disgrace to everything that is 'toujours pur'. 

**

Unknown to Sirius, Regulus awoke shortly after him. He had his eyes firmly closed, if he opened them and saw the inferi attacking him he knew he would scream. 

And for Merlin's sake, he was a Black and he refused to die in such a state. He would go down proudly, if such a thing were possible with death-by-inferi. 

Any moment now they would drag him down. He still felt their hands on his throat but apparently he had fought them off for the moment because he was still alive. 

Or maybe it was just a trick to prologue his suffering. 

Ha, inferi that are intelligent enough to think up something like that. That was exceptional even for the Dark Lord. He would have to give him that. 

Next to him he heard some shuffling and he had to remind himself he was prepared to die. Merlin he had been preparing to die for month now, ever since Kreacher...

Kreacher... 

No, no, no. 

He wouldn't go there he refused to think about the Dark Lord and that foul thing while dying. 

Happy thoughts Regulus...

The inferius next to him screamed as if in agony. 

That couldn't be right. Those monsters didn't feel anything. For a moment he thought a dog had been apparated in – wouldn't that be a nice plot twist – for the crying he heard almost sounded like whining. 

To curious to resist he peeked through his fingers.The crumbled heap on the flour was a man. A very familiar man. But this was all wrong, granted he hadn't seen him in some months – the consequences of having non death-eather relatives – but this man looked about 20 years older than he should be. It was impossible. 

He was impossible. 

He shouldn't be here. 

Speaking off... By Merlin what happened to Hogwarts and moreover HOW DID HE GET HERE. 

Suppressing the manic laughter he felt bubbling up he let his face fall in the well practiced blank expression. A hint of a sneer the only sign of the hysterics he felt within.

He did a quick scan of his surroundings. 

He apparently escaped the cave, he wasn't going to let his confusion about being alive be the reason he was killed after all. 

Pushing all the impossible things firmly away behind his occlumency shields he took note of his position. 

His wand was in his hand. 

He was fairly sure he was physically injured but not badly enough to influence his fighting.

Mentally was another story, he was pretty sure he was hallucinating or just totally mental. 

'Focus, Reg', het told himself. 

Okay, so he was in a partly destroyed entrance hall, if he were pressed to guess he would say it had been the stage of some epic battle. 

They weren't alone. There were people – dead or knocked out – around them. 

But more important were the people approaching them. 

Siri had apparently drawn his wand with the intent to protect them, for once he indulged in the warmth he felt because of the (probably wishful) though that his brother would protect him. 

Like he used to do, before Hogwarts.

But Sirius was in no state to do any kind of magic. And as much as he wanted to check on the desolate sounding heap that was his big brother, he needed to protect them. 

He moved quickly, ignoring how his throat ached with every breath, how little feeling or command he had over his right side. 

Stepping over Sirius he drew on every bit of pureblood Back and Slytherin pride he could muster and stood straight with his wand out. 

The approaching group paused at this obviously defensive gesture. 

Belatedly Regulus realised that none of them actually had their wands out, well, not until he drew his. 

This was probably some kind of post-battle rescue mission. 

The problem was that he had no idea what kind of battle had taken place here. 

Had the Dark Lord attacked Hogwarts? 

Moreover, had he succeeded? 

It probably wouldn't matter either way. 

He had doomed himself by his attempt at destroying the Horcrux. Or maybe earlier by taking the dark mark instead of running away like Sirius had done. He would be both hunted by the light and the dark. 

He never wanted this. He never expected to survive the cave. 

But yet here he was and while he was still alive he would protect his brother. Maybe it was because he expected some dark curse, or maybe it was just the not optimal state of his brain, but the quickly fired Expelliarmus and petrifying curse took him by surprise. 

He fell back next to his useless brother who was still to out of it to be of any help. How very Gryffindor of him to be so utterly and stupidly absorbed in his emotions to forget about coming danger. 

Those Gryffindors may be brave at times but mostly they were way more emotional than any Hufflepuff he'd ever met. And to think he had been jealous of Siri, had tried to argue with the hat to put him there too. 

Ha, the hats word seemed very funny at that moment. It had told him that he'd consider it if he did get himself killed on an impulse. Well he didn't even manage that. His suicide mission had been planned to the most insignificant detail. How very Slytherin, mother would be proud. 

The people who attacked him, if you could call such a childish and harmless spell a real attack, stumped closer. He couldn't see them from his place on the ground but they weren't particularly silent or subtle. No Slytherins he would guess. He did an awful lot of guessing lately. How out of character. 

Desperate times apparently called for desperate personality changes. 

Anyway, the not-Slytherins were now in his line of sight. They looked young, maybe still Hogwarts age. Even though he wasn't so much older it seemed like an eternity ago that he last walked these halls. Their clothes were in various stages of disastrous and they all spotted either muggle bandages or fresh scars. So many wounded and not an adequate healing team. 

Regulus tried to stay calm and get as much information as possible. 

Now that he happened to be alive he found he was quite attached to this state of being. 

So he focused on trying to determine to which side this group belonged. “Do you guys recognize them?” one of the boys asked. One of the girls answered. 

“No, not really, but I think this one is having some kind of episode. We better take him to Madam Pomfrey to get him checked.”

“What about the boy though” said yet another voice. 

“Do you think he is a supporter of You-Know-How?”

“Well either that, or he didn't get the memo the war is over”, the first voice spoke.

Another voice, this time a girl, started to hum a song and lifted Regulus with a silent Wingardium Leviosa. They were already at the the corner of a hallway when she called over her shoulder: “I think Harry might want to see Sirius, so why don't you guys help him up? I need to talk to young Black.” 

With that she left the hall, taking Regulus away from Sirius and a stunned group of teenagers.


	2. Wrackspurts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys
> 
> sorry it took me so long to post this next chapter. I'm not really sure where this is going, mainly just exploring the characters. 
> 
> Thanks for all the kudos and the reviews, it motivated me to keep writing.
> 
> I also edited the first chapter a bit.

\- 1979 - 

Acturus Black III had seen the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black perish. As expected he outlived his father and mother. 

But to have seen his siblings die unmarried and heirless had been a shock. When his son Orion died in 1979 he truly started despairing the continuation of their name. By this time his grandson Regulus had died and his other grandson Sirius was in disgrace. 

He needed to do something. He couldn't let their name die out.

So he went to the libary to research a way to preserve his family. His legacy.

 

\- Present time -

Regulus was still silently fuming about the way he was being levitated. Wingardium Leviosa was definitely not the correct spell to lift someone, he wasn't an object. It shouldn't be even possible to lift a living being with that stupid first year spell. For a moment he considered the thought he might not be alive.

Would it be possible to lift a corpse with that spell? Or inferi? Or vampires? He would research that later, he promised himself, appeasing his inner Ravenclaw. 

But now he had to focus on more pressing issues. It didn't really matter if you could Wingardium the dead because he was pretty convinced of his not-deadness. It seemed a bit to optimistic to label his current state as alive, he would not be so optimistic and have his hopes crushed later. 

Focus Regulus, he berated himself as he floated into an empty classroom followed by the blond girl. This wasn't a moment for self-pity or philosophical reflections about the definition of being alive.

Somewhere in the hall the girl had started her humming song again and when he was finally levitated down to the floor and felt the body-bind dissolve he wondered if she was just so focussed on humming that she simply forgot to speak the spells out loud or that her use of nonverbal casting was a sort of intimidation technic. 

Looking at her dreamy expression he suspected the first but whatever the intention was he was very much intimidated. 

Carefully guarding his expression he sat up and thought back at the way she had spoken to the others. She was certainly well respected by her peers to have been able to command them so casually. He had to get back to his brother and if she was in charge of anything here he had to manipulate her to get back so he could protect Sirius. As he was finishing that thought he was suddenly afraid that she was able to read his thoughts and he reinforced his occlumency barriers. 

Her face had hardened and lost its dreaminess and her voice was devoid of emotion as she icily proclaimed that he had to look out lest he let the wrackspurts that suddenly centred him enter his brain. 

He had no idea what a wrackspurt was but was pretty sure she was threatening him and that things wouldn't end very well for him if she hexed something into his head. 

'uhmm... Sorry miss' he stammered out. Silently complimenting himself for his eloquence.

He was so confused about everything and the bright smile that she gave him after his rather pathetic response didn't make things any clearer.

He expected some kind of interrogation from her, but she remained silently beaming at him. Why had she taken him here if not to question him? Or torture? Or kill?

She seemed however completely comfortable remaining silent and that irritated him somehow more than being cursed or questioned would. 

His anger spiked again and he found himself demanding in an haughty voice to be taken back to his brother. 

In response she raised an eyebrow in an manner that made him suspect she was a pureblood although he hadn't seen any of the other telling mannerisms. 

'So, your brother...' she started, but instead of finishing that sentence she started a new one. 'You look quite similar, you know'. 

Regulus realised then what a mistake he had made, he had given his identity away by referring to Siri as his brother. Well there was nothing for it, he would better make the best of his slip and maybe be get some credit for being polite. 

So in a graceful motion (he hoped) he rose from the floor and after well measured bow proclaimed: 'Regulus Acturus Black, second Heir to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, may I enquire after your name and intentions, Miss?' 

He felt himself relax as he fell back into what he knew. Polite, correct, protocol. Always there to save him.

But his conversation partner didn't seem to feel the same way about etiquette. Instead of reciprocating with the customary acknowledgement of his house and title or even just a simple answer to his question she giggled. 

An actual giggle. 

He was about to comment cooly on the disrespect she was showing him when she cocked her head to the side and said in a singsong voice: 

'Luna Lovegood, nice to meet you Regulus.' 

'As for my intentions...' her voice formed around the last word like it was new to her and it took a minute before she picked the sentence up again. 

'I merely noticed some of those wrackspurts I warned you about earlier and wanted to make sure you wouldn't infect the others.' She explained like it was the most logical thing. 'They can make people rather violent, you know'. 

Regulus actually didn't know but didn't want to give that away, she might not be a Slytherin (he was pretty sure about that) but every weakness could be used against him. So instead of asking what in Salazars name a wrackspurt was he instead asked if he was still in any danger of them or if they had gone away. 

She giggled again. 

'How would I know, silly, wrackspurts are invisible.' 

Between the giggling and the invisible creatures he was beginning to doubt her sanity. 

'Well miss Lovegood, now we have established that,' Regulus said, ignoring the fact that he wasn't sure wether they had established anything at all in this surreal meeting, 'May I go to Sirius now?'

Luna smiled sweetly and completely ignoring all the social rules took his hand in hers and pulled her back into the hall. 

The only reason Regulus let her was that she had grabbed his left hand with her right. Therefor being unable to wield her wand while his wand hand was left free. Again he wondered if she was just so oblivious to everything or just so powerful that it honestly didn't matter if she could wield her wand or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So next chapter more Sirius again. I hope it won't be so long.


	3. lethargy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, I've got another chapter ready for you guys. It's a bit short but this seemed a natural ending point. Hope you enjoy. xxx

Back in the entrance hall Sirius slowly came to his senses. He lay on the floor, his throat raw and his fists painfully clenched. 

Regulus was gone. Again. He was sure he had just imagined him, standing over him to protect him. That didn't sound like Regulus at all. Always the sneaky death-eather snake. Always the proper Black. 

No, no, no no, he was just a ghost in his head. Reawakened by his imprisonment in Grimmauld place. 

He had to focus on what was real. Even if this was all in his head anyway as some kind of afterlife punishment. 

He had to find Harry. Sweet, innocent, brave Harry, who had walked right into Voldemorts trap and had gone to the department of mysteries.

He looked up to the confused teenagers before him. He didn't recognise any of them from the battle in the ministry. He cleared his throat and with a hoarse voice he managed one word: “Harry?”

Somehow that made them all look a bit uncomfortable and his heart sank.

“Well...” one girl with dirty blond hair said a bit hesitantly. “I suppose Luna knows what she's talking about.”

“Yes well, maybe she finally went completely barmy”.

“Maybe the Blibbering Humdingers got to her”, someone else sniggered.

Sirius tuned them all out and laid back down on his back, his head pounding with a headache and confusion drowning him. 

He let his mind drift to Harry. 

To James and Lilly and Remus. 

No Peter. 

No Regulus.

He was to tired for traitors and stupid brothers right now. 

To tired for these stupid children who were stupidly talking about stupid Humdingers in a stupid entrance hall that looked like Hogwarts but couldn't be Hogwarts and he was probably dead. Why weren't James and Lilly here if he was dead? He wanted James to hug him and Lilly to scream at him and he didn't want to deal with stupid stupid stupid school children who couldn't even decide on wether to take him to Harry. 

He needed Harry. 

He could feel the darkness and lethargy that had grown inside him during his long years in Azkaban creep closer. Its boney fingers carding through his hair. Its menacing smile and deceitfully kind eyes as it tried to devour him in an hug of emptiness. The security that came with nothing mattering.

He remembered his father casting the Imperius on him once. He had been very young and had had a nightmare. He had screamed and when the house elves couldn't get him to calm down his father had pulled him in his lap and cast the unforgivable on him. He hadn't ordered him to do anything at all. He had just held him in his arms and let him feel the peace of not having a single thought in his head. 

He hadn't understood then, but later, years later he had been angry. 

Been angry at his father, but maybe angrier at himself for secretly longing for that feeling again. For falling asleep in his fathers lap while he was being cursed. For trusting his cold and heartless father.

He hates himself for welcoming the comforting arms of the monster now. The monster that makes him feel so much like he felt back then. Save in his fathers arms. 

He hates himself reaching for the monster that is feeding on all his feelings. Taking them away 'till he is nothing. He is nothing and nothing has any meaning anymore. There are no hard cold stones under him. No nosy teenagers standing around him. The demanding voice of Minerva McGonagall is just a distant memory as he hears her demanding what is going on. 

Wait what?

What is McGonagall doing here in his head?

And why is she whispering his name now? 

Close, her voice is too close. And too concerned and too warm and to disbelieving.

He pulls himself out of this nothing, out of his head and his memories. He collects all the bits of his mind that are still Sirius Black. That aren't broken and empty and dead.

He doesn't need to open his eyes since he never closed them.

He just tries to focus and tries to see more than the nothing. He stares into Minerva's pale face as slowly his eyes and his brain reconnect and he can register what he sees. 

His old head of house looks like she has seen a ghost. Maybe she has. He is dead after all. He is pretty sure he is dead.

He thought he had seen every emotion Minerva was capable off. The Marauders had pushed her into raging anger at times. 

He had seen the whole range between outright bafflement and furiously mad. He had a soft spot for her secretly amusement expression. 

But now she looked more shocked than he had every seen her. There was disbelieve and anger. And pain.

He didn't understand why she reacted so much. Sure she always liked him. Sure people weren't supposed to die and then appear in their old school in front of their head of house.

But well... it was Hogwarts after all.

And he wasn't just people, he thought a little smugly. He wished this face he was seeing was for a planned prank he had somehow pulled off.

Although there was quite some pain there too...

And if this was a prank he was quite sure whoever was responsible would not easily survive the lioness' telling off. 

He wouldn't mind being in that room to watch the whole thing.

But first things first. He should say something. Or do something. Or. Whatever. Something other than laying here and staring.

However, by the time he had thought all this through he was in a full body bind and floating behind the professor towards the great hall. The group students still seemed confused and didn't follow.


	4. the vow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys. It's been a while. again. I guess I'm not such an reliable writer. I'm not sure about this chapter, but well.
> 
> I started writing just to explore the characters (and the whole writing thing) a bit, but was quite lost to where to take the story. Now I've a direction in mind, so don't worry, it won't remain totally plotless. But it will probably focus more on character study and development than anything else. 
> 
> enjoy.

Regulus was dragged by Luna through the doors that separated the entrance hall and the great hall.

He was running on the last of his adrenaline and couldn't muster up enough energy to keep his pureblood mask in place. Instead he focused on his breathing and his occlumency and just followed the girl through the maze of stretchers. 

The hall was buzzing with people. Some beds were surrounded by whole families (he even saw a baby in the arms of an elderly witch). Others had lone figures in them, emptily staring at the darkening sky on the ceiling. 

Mediwitches and -wizards were running from bed to bed. Clearly overworked and understaffed. 

He was dragged past the head table to the little room off the hall. It was a bit calmer here. On one side was a cluster of redhead, on the other a (poorly transfigured) bed with a black haired boy on it. He didn't seem gravely injured but was showing signs of fatigue and magical exhaustion (pale, sweaty, swallow breathing, weak magical aura, his mind automatically supplied).

Regulus noticed this all only vaguely because most of his attention was on Sirius.  
Sirius who was being levitated by Minerva McGonacall (at least she used the correct spell: Mobilicorpus) and laid gently next to the boy. When she removed the body bind on him and started asking him questions his brothers eyes went wild. He clutched the hand of the boy next to him and kept murmuring something.

Regulus wanted to run towards him but a gentle tug on his hand held him back.  
Luna smiled up at him and whispered to him to wait a moment. 

McGonacall kept questioning Sirius about the most random things: his graduation party in the Gryffindor tower, something about the colour of the kitchen in Grimmald place and something about the Death Chamber in the Ministry. 

But Sirius didn't seem to hear her. Keeping up an endless stream of frantic whispering and whining.

When he tried to get even closer to the boy on the bed McGonacall moved forward, but before she reached Sirius the boy murmured a sleepy “Padfood”. He smiled softly and petted the bed next to him. 

With a whine, that started human sounding but ended more sounding like a beaten dog, his brother transformed in a big black grim and jumped on the bed.

“Well, I guess that proves its him”, Minerva mumbled.

The boy on the bed curled his barely awake body around the dog and his magic made a slight shimmer in the air. He had - apparently subconsciously - thrown up some kind of shield around them. 

When Regulus stepped closer to the bed, Luna let him.

Which was a slight miscalculation on Regulus part since closer to Sirius also meant closer to McGonacall. 

The witch turned around and the expression she wore was beyond shocked. After a moment of just staring, she conjured herself a chair and with a resigned expression she said: “Please explain why you brought me two, until recently dead, Blacks?”

Regulus wasn't sure to whom that question was directed but was glad when Luna spoke, since he didn't have a clue either. 

“Well, they are surrounded the smell of time dust so my guess would be some kind of time altering ritual.” Luna explained like it was obvious.

Regulus was pretty sure time dust didn't smell, but well, it's not like he had personal experience with it. Although... seemingly now he had.

The head of Gryffindor house looked even more resigned, like she was used to Luna's unsatisfying explanations and just shook her head. 

“Well, I'm frankly to tired to care. Please make a unbreakable vow not to harm anyone and you can stay for tonight.”

Regulus' eyebrows rose as he stared incredulous at McGonacall. A unbreakable vow not to harm anyone would mean not harming anyone, anywhere, ever again if not specified more. Basically a death warrant. 

The witch seemed to pick up on his silent clue. “Okay, not to harm anyone unless provoked while your staying in the castle.”

Well that vow had quite a lot of loopholes but he wasn't going to point that out to the clearly exhausted witch. 

He held out his hand and McGonacall took it. Luna came forward and placed her want on their entwined hands. McGonacall locked eyes with him, and he felt her mind connect ever so slightly with his. It was a weak form of legilimency, often used during these kind of rituals, ensuring mutual sincerity and willingness.

“Do you, Regulus...” 

He mentally pushed his second name into his former teachers thoughts when she hesitated unsurely.

“...Arcturus Black, swear not to harm anyone unless provoked while staying in the castle?”

“Yes, I do so swear”, he answered firmly.  
And that was that. The light encircled their hands and dissolved into nothing.

For a moment he was tempted to sneak into her mind to find some answers, but he didn't know to which extent she was schooled in the mind arts, so he purposefully blinked to sever the link and glanced towards Luna. 

Luna started humming again, which broke the tension and silence in the room. Wait, silence? The crowd of redheads, who had previously been engaged in some kind of grieving, despairing, comforting and group hugging ritual, were all staring at them. 

McGonacall gave the room at large a stern look, nodded at Luna and strode purposefully out of the room. Apparently they were to sort out whatever was going on on their own. 

With the witch, the last adrenaline on which he was running left him and Regulus sank down on the chair. He wondered briefly how much energy the clearly exhausted witch had put in this bit of transfiguration and if it would have any of the permanency one would expect from a transfiguration expert.

Luna patted his shoulder consolingly and walked over to the redheads, who, might he add, were still staring unashamedly. He listened to her talk to them, only registering some words and names. 

He pulled the chair closer to the bed, resenting the boy when he bounced off the shield the boy kept up while sleeping and, as noted before, magically exhausted. Why was everybody here so freaking weird. It just didn't make sense. And least at all did his brother, who apparently was a dog at the moment. 

To be fair, that did somehow make some sort of twisted sense. It was just the thing his idiot brother would do. 

Always stupidly loyal. 

Towards his friends if not his family. 

 

He leant forwards, resting his forehead against the shield and closing his eyes for a moment.  
When he opened them some time later he stared into unsettling green eyes. The eyes blinked a few times in lethargic confusion before hugging the dog tighter. 

With slow movements he reached for his unused cushion and pushing it towards the side of the bed. 

His intent became clear when he withdrew his shield ever so slightly, making Regulus stumble forward a bit in his seat. The shield kept shrinking and was now almost skin tight around the two, making space for Regulus to curl up in an awkward half on the chair, half on the bed position. He laid a careful hand on the shield on top of his brother. He couldn't quite feel him through it, but giving the overprotective boy a quick look he understood that this was the closes he could get at the moment.

Too tired and, to be honest, mostly too confused to care about the other people in the room, he fell in a deep comforting sleep.


End file.
